When Cancer Returns

Previously I wrote a hub on my cat Lindsay. She had cancer and we had to do a lot of soul searching at the time to decide if we would indeed spend the money needed for her surgery. Growing up in the country I had seen a lot of cats come and go, especially tom cats that would all eventually wander off. As they were primarily outdoor cats we never did see most of them die. As a child and teen I was attached to my cats but as said they did come and go.

Lindsay was a friendly female cat that had lived outdoors at my families home and when I moved in with my wife for the first time we brought her with us. Over the years Lindsay has become a part of our family. I admit even I've become closer with her than any other animal. We did go ahead and have the surgery done for her about a year or so ago and she bounced back very well unfortunately that's not where this story ends.

Over the past few months we began to notice a large lump on her stomach. As our anxiety grew over time so did the lump until very recently when we attended the vet. He confirmed our worst fears, the lump was indeed a return of the cancer. After discussing it thoroughly with the vet we came to two possibilities. We could either medicate her until she gets to weak and then have her put down or we could have a new surgery done.

Now if I were my father Lindsay probably would have never had the first surgery. he woudn't have spent money on a cat. Not that I blame him, our family was never very well off and you have to think about family before pets. We did do the first surgery and it was about $1200 which even in my mind is more than someone should be spending on an aging pet as Lindsay is now 12, possibly 13. But as said she has become so much a part of our family I can only imagine how my wife and daughter would feel if we lost her.

We also are beginning to enter unknown territory. Lindsay came through the last surgery very well but she did gain some weight, has a real lack of skin to work with and of course has some muscle knots where there were sutures. I also have to admit expenses in recent months have been very heavy as I recently had to buy a new furnace among other things. So at this point I am really between a rock and a hard place.

As horrible as it is I have to be the one to make the choice on whether Lindsay lives or dies and I simply don't know what to do. Let me know what you think in the comments.

If you didn't read my first article on Lindsay you can find it here:

http://terrektwo.hubpages.com/hub/My-Funny-Cat-Lindsay

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